PDFTEX(1)PDFTEX(1)NAME
pdfetex, pdfeinitex, pdfevirtex - PDF output from e-TeX
SYNOPSISpdfetex [options] [commands]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The com-
plete documentation for this version of TeX can be found
in the info file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.
pdfeTeX is a version of e-TeX that can create PDF files as
well as DVI files.
The typical use of pdfeTeX is with a pregenerated formats
for which PDF output has been enabled. The pdfetex com-
mand uses the equivalent of the plain e-TeX format, and
the pdfelatex command uses the equivalent of the e-LaTeX
format.
The pdfeinitex and pdfevirtex commands are pdfeTeX's ana-
logues to the einitex and evirtex commands. In this
installation, they are symlinks to the pdfetex executable.
pdfeTeX's handling of its command-line arguments is simi-
lar to that of e-TeX.
pdfeTeX is beta software.
OPTIONS
This version of pdfeTeX understands the following command
line options.
--efmt format
Use format as the name of the format to be used,
instead of the name by which pdfeTeX was called or
a %& line.
--file-line-error-style
Print error messages in the form file:line:error
which is similar to the way many compilers format
them.
--help Print help message and exit.
--ini Be pdfeinitex, for dumping formats; this is implic-
itly true if the program is called as pdfeinitex.
--interaction mode
Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of
batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstop-
mode. The meaning of these modes is the same as
that of the corresponding \commands.
--ipc Send DVI or PDF output to a socket as well as the
usual output file. Whether this option is avail-
able is the choice of the installer.
--ipc-start
As --ipc, and starts the server at the other end as
well. Whether this option is available is the
choice of the installer.
--jobname name
Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it
from the name of the input file.
--kpathsea-debug bitmask
Sets path searching debugging flags according to
the bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual for details.
--maketex fmt
Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or
tfm.
--no-maketex fmt
Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or
tfm.
--output-comment string
Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the
date.
--parse-first-line
If the first line of the main input file begins
with %& parse it to look for a dump name or a
--translate-file option.
--progname name
Pretend to be program name. This affects both the
format used and the search paths.
--shell-escape
Enable the \write18{command} construct. The com-
mand can be any Bourne shell command. This con-
struct is normally disallowed for security reasons.
--translate-file tcxname
Use the tcxname translation table.
--version
Print version information and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path spec-
ifications' node) for precise details of how the environ-
ment variables are used. The kpsewhich utility can be
used to query the values of the variables.
One caveat: In most pdfeTeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a
filename you give directly to pdfeTeX, because ~ is an
active character, and hence is expanded, not taken as part
of the filename. Other programs, such as Metafont, do not
have this problem.
TEXMFOUTPUT
Normally, pdfeTeX puts its output files in the cur-
rent directory. If any output file cannot be
opened there, it tries to open it in the directory
specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT.
There is no default value for that variable. For
example, if you say pdfetex paper and the current
directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has the
value /tmp, pdfeTeX attempts to create
/tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.pdf, if any output
is produced.)
TEXINPUTS
Search path for \input and \openin files. This
should probably start with ``.'', so that user
files are found before system files. An empty path
component will be replaced with the paths defined
in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS
to ".:/home/usr/tex:" to prepend the current
direcory and ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard
search path.
TEXFONTS
Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
TEXFORMATS
Search path for format files.
TEXPOOL
search path for pdfeinitex internal strings.
TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor. The
default, usually vi, is set when pdfeTeX is com-
piled.
FILES
The location of the files mentioned below varies from sys-
tem to system. Use the kpsewhich utility to find their
locations.
pdfetex.pool
Encoded text of pdfeTeX's messages.
texfonts.map
Filename mapping definitions.
*.tfm Metric files for pdfeTeX's fonts.
*.fmt Predigested pdfeTeX format (.efmt) files.
BUGS
This version of pdfeTeX implements a number of optional
extensions. In fact, many of these extensions conflict to
a greater or lesser extent with the definition of pdfeTeX.
When such extensions are enabled, the banner printed when
pdfeTeX starts is changed to print pdfeTeXk instead of
pdfeTeX.
This version of pdfeTeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow
when dimensions are added or subtracted. Cases where this
occurs are rare, but when it does the generated DVI file
will be invalid. Whether a generated PDF file would be
usable is unknown.
pdfeTeX is beta software. Subscribe to the pdftex mailing
list pdftex@tug.org if you intend to use it. This is a
majordomo list, to subscribe send a message containing
subscribe pdftex to majordomo@tug.org.
SEE ALSOtex(1), mf(1), etex(1).
AUTHORS
The primary authors of pdfTeX are Han The Thanh, Petr
Sojka, and Jiri Zlatuska.
Web2C 7.4.5 10 November 2001 PDFTEX(1)
